Line-up of Nova's, San Francisco, CA, Police

These baby blue patrol cars weren't the first pastel police cars Chief Gain initiated. Charles R' Gain was Chief of Police in Oakland, California right across the bay from San Francisco from 1967 until his appointment as Undersheriff of San Francisco and later as Chief of SFPD. Gain repainted the black and white Oakland PD cars to a crummy beige and white scheme retaining the door shield but later replacing it with an "Oakland Police Services" logo on the front fenders that depicted an abstract oak tree design, derisively called "Gain's brain" by OPD officers because it resembled a brain. The car numbers were painted on the doors. This came to an end in the early to mid 1980's when Oakland Chief George T. Hart returned the police cars to their black and white color scheme and restored the shield insignia to the doors.

Four years later and reviewing the site, the cars are still dreadful. Those Chevettes and the blue Ford Pinto in the background were probably that Chief's idea of a swell detective's car as well! That's even worse than a K-Car! Phil Henning, Lt Col, USAF (Ret) l

My dad was a former San francisco police officer and these "baby blue and white" patrol cars that the SFPD had from 1977-1979 with the "police services" insignia on the doors were about the UGLIEST cars the SFPD ever had !

The story behind this is when former police cheif Charles Gain wanted to make the patrol cars more visible to the public . He decided on the "baby blue and white" color scheme would be painted on any newer patrol cars during his tenure in office , which greatly irked most officers who favored the traditional black and white vehicles .

What irked them more is when Cheif Gain stated in his first days in office that the police department was there to provide a service to the people and visitors of the city and in his efforts to polish up the department's image the traditional SFPD door stars were replaced by the city symbol with "police services" inscribed .

Just three years after Cheif Gain's appointment as Cheif of Police in San Francisco and a year after the assasinations of Mayor George Moscone , the person who appointed him to that position after the retirement of my dad's then boss Donald M . Scott , Cheif Gain (in which my father worked under his leadership for just 7 months before he resigned from the department to take a new job as a police officer and later detective in Twin Falls , Idaho) was given a vote of "no confidence" under the new police commission appointed by then newly elected Mayor Dianne Feinstein .

Cornelius P. Murphy , a long time street cop and homocide inspector with a good reputation among his law enforcement peers was sworn in as Cheif of Police and one of his promises to his men and women was to restore department tradition . He kept his word by returning the future patrol car fleet to its original black and white regalia with the SFPD star placed back on the front doors .

Cheif Murphy also was steadfast in restoring the public's faith in the police department by instituting one of the first and earliest community policing programs in the nation .

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DerrickThanks for that insight. I for one had wondered what the story was on these cars. I had been told before that they were used by civilian police employees. Now we know the real story: a new chief with "politically correct" ideas.